"Recognizing a Palestinian state at the right time", and that would be.... the existence of a Palestinian government exercising full authority over the entire Palestinian territory. Because the Israelis will never allow a Palestinian government to exercise full authority over the entire Palestinian territory, it is a safe bet to assume this call is a meaningless waste of time, and those opposing it, know it to be.

"There must be a more lawful and ethical way for the US to proceed in the world than this". There is, and you mentioned it earlier in your article, the proper use of the UNSC to resolve disputes, of course when one member of the veto wielding five decides to act unilaterally, in theory breaking International law, any resolution put forward by the other four accusing the offender is immediately vetoed and consigned to the memory hole. You see, that system carefully put together by the victors after WW2, puts all 5 veto wielding members above the law for all time. Cute ain't it?

" It had now sided with a dictator to defend its strategic and sectarian goals—" That's nonsense, the Takferis in Syria told the Shia that after eliminating Assad and any other minorities in Syria, they, the Shia in Lebanon would be next, so Hezbollah saw, quite correctly that the Takferis were an existential threat to them, and as we now know to anyone who does not agree with them. Assad has huge support from all sections and denominations in Syria, I can only hope he prevails, otherwise everyone in Syria will be back to medieval times.

Ultimately, condemning Islam and Muslims indiscriminately would play in the hands of those seeking to terrorise and divide us, as well as fuel the kind of nationalism that Charlie Hebdo has always fought. Unfortunately Charlie Hebdo went out of their way to gratuitously offend and insult in the most crude and provocative manner, not a wise thing to do, in other countries it would be called hate speech, in France any anti Semitic speech could be met with a jail sentence, or in the case of a former employee, was sacked for not apologizing to the family of Nicholas Sarkozy whose son was about to be married to a wealthy Jewish family who where sickened by his comment "He'll go a long way in life, this lad" which was supposed to be anti Semitic on the grounds that it could be interpreted as making a link between conversion to Judaism and social success. The moral of the story is You can be as nasty as you like to Muslims and/or their God, but say anything anti Semitic, you are toast.

This is what they did in the Golan Heights, the UNSC then came up with this resolution... Security Council Resolution 497 [December 1981] declared that the acquisition of territory by force was inadmissible and that Israel’s decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the Golan Heights is null and void and without legal effect. Thirty three years later and the International community is still paralyzed, no wonder the Israelis think they can act with impunity. Until they suffer consequences, they will steal more.

spyguy, those anti-missile defences, iron dome etc are according to Professor of science Theodore A Postol at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology quite ineffective, he calculates no better than 5% success. link to magenlaoref.org.il

Thanks for those excellent comments spyguy, Israel has no future unless it ends the occupation, as you say it will be overwhelmed by its enemies growing tehnology and also with low tech thrown in, witness those Quassam rockets, a schoolboy could make one and at a cost of buttons, Nasrallah warned Israel that Hezbollah should close all its ports and airports in the event of another war, [Nasrallah does not make promises he does not intend to keep]http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Nasrallah-to-Israel-You-should-close-all-your-ports-our-rockets-can-reach-everywhere-380728 Demographically Palestinians are on a par with people of Jewish origin between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, finally Ideologically, the International community will not permit the permanent imprisonment of Palestinians in Bantustans worse than South Africa.

It is disturbing that Dempsey should back what is now official Israeli policy, called the Dahiya doctrine, here is how an Israeli official described it in 2009."Israel has sought the political, as well as military, emasculation of Hamas through the widespread destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure and economy.
This is known as the “Dahiya Doctrine,” named after a suburb of Beirut that was almost leveled during Israel’s attack on Lebanon in summer 2006. The doctrine was encapsulated in a phrase used by Dan Halutz, Israel’s chief of staff, at the time. He said Lebanon’s bombardment would “turn back the clock 20 years.”
The commanding officer in Israel’s south, Yoav Galant, echoed those sentiments on the Gaza offensive’s first day: the aim, he said, was to “send Gaza decades into the past.”
Beyond these sound-bites, Gadi Eisenkot, the head of Israel’s northern command, clarified in October the practical aspects of the strategy: “What happened in the Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on. We will apply disproportionate force on it and cause great damage and destruction there. From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases. This is not a recommendation. This is a plan.”
In the interview, Gen Eisenkot was discussing the next round of hostilities with Hizballah. However, the doctrine was intended for use in Gaza, too".In the interview, Gen Eisenkot was discussing the next round of hostilities with Hizballah. However, the doctrine was intended for use in Gaza, too.

Gabriel Siboni, a colonel in the reserves, set out the new “security concept” in an article published by Tel Aviv University’s Institute of National Security Studies two months before the assault on Gaza. Conventional military strategies for waging war against states and armies, he wrote, could not defeat sub-national resistance movements, such as Hizballah and Hamas, that have deep roots in the local population.
The goal instead was to use “disproportionate force,” thereby “inflicting damage and meting out punishment to an extent that will demand long and expensive reconstruction processes.”
Siboni identified the chief target of Israel’s rampages as “decision makers and the power elite,” including “economic interests and the centers of civilian power that support the [enemy] organization.” link to electronicintifada.net

Professor Cole you said Iran would be annoyed if the US bombed Syria, I'm not sure whether the US would care, however Russia has warned the US about such a move and would counter it kinetically. Some people are confused about what's going on in the Middle East? Allow me to explain.
We support the Iraqi government in the fight against the Islamic State. We don't like IS, but IS is supported by Saudi Arabia, whom we do like.
We don't like President Assad in Syria. We support the fight against him, but not IS, which is also fighting against him.
We don't like Iran, but Iran supports the Iraqi government against IS. So, some of our friends support our enemies and some of our enemies are our friends, and some of our enemies are fighting against our other enemies, whom we want to lose, but we don't want our enemies who are fighting our other enemies to win.
If the people we want to defeat are defeated, they might be replaced by people we like even less. And all this was started by us invading a country to drive out terrorists who surely actually they're to begin with until we went in to drive them out". Do you understand now?

Excellent article Professor Cole, Article 49.paragraph 6 is the most blatant charge, the International Court of Justice in its opinion in 2004 has said all the settlements in OPT are illegal under International Law, they arrived at that conclusion by 15 votes to o. The present Israeli aggression also amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity and collective punishment with the deliberate bombing of water and sewerage facilities. link to middleeasteye.net

Just to add to my comment above, McCain and Obama said the US was the "exceptional nation" and that they believed it with every fibre of their being. In my opinion that is not only wrong, but dangerous.

Thomas Jefferson said all men are created equal, unfortunately many US politicians do not believe that, Putin in that New York Times article had to remind John McQeada and Obama of that fact. The Palestinians will get nowhere whilst being led by Abbas, he has given commitments to US/Israel that he will not apply for UN institutions and presumably also the ICC, this is unbelievable, especially when the well documented war crimes of population transfer are ongoing, and more of the same are promised, pursuing Israel through the International courts is not even an act of resistance, it is the least any self respecting leader would do to protect his people from the daily humiliations life under occupation, but he will not act. link to timesofisrael.com

Strictly speaking Glenn Robinson is putting the cart before the horse, the West Bank is still occupied territory, therefore there should be no Israeli citizens there to make apartheid possible. Article 49.6 of the Geneva Conventions makes the transfer of citizens of the occupier into occupied territory a grave war crime. Israeli citizens do not comprise part of the protected local population, article 4 of Geneva.states.. "Persons protected by the Convention are those who, at a given moment and in any manner whatsoever, find themselves, in case of a conflict or occupation, in the hands of a Party to the conflict or Occupying Power of which they are not nationals"
It is possible that those settlers, including Lieberman are guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes, all settlers are guilty with varying degrees of culpability, this crime should be the first order of business when the ICC eventually gets around to the Palestinians valid accusations

The West, Egypt, Israel and Abbas are responsible for this terrible state of affairs, the occupation must be ended, but instead Abbas facilitates it [no doubt due to intimidation from Israel/US] In my opinion applying for membership of the remaining 63 UN Agencies, and, more importantly ratifying and pursuing war crimes charges at the ICC are not even acts of resistance, they are what any normal person would do when when such crimes are perpetrated against them. The International Court of Justice [ICJ] has already declared in an opinion in 2004 [The Wall case] that Israel is in breach of the Geneva Conventions 49.6, their opinion [15 judges to 0] was that Israel could not transfer its own citizens into belligerent occupied territory, the planning and execution of such polices is a grave war crime, to which any individual including Government Ministers like B Netenyahu can be indicted at the Hague.Many people correctly regard these talks as an annexation process, the sooner Abbas and his Government stop this charade and put pressure on the ICC prosecutor to open an investigation and let an independent court with the power to implement it's decisions take it's course, things will only get worse.

A more accurate description of the settlers would be war criminals, as defined by the 1998 ICC Rome statute now incorporated into many states Laws for instance the UK ICC act 2001 states at article 8 "war crimes means" v111 The transfer directly or indirectly, by the occupying power of its own population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory;

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